Cyprus Summit could hit bottleneck over security chapter

Cyprus Summit could hit bottleneck over security chapter

The first day of the Swiss Cyprus Summit resumed on Sunday did not produce any concrete results, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Monday.

Citing a diplomatic source, Turkish daily Hurriyet reports that the lack of a clear stand on guarantees by the Greek Cypriot and Greek sides which could be agreed by the guarantor countries (Turkey, Greece and the UK), has caused the negotiations to run into a bottleneck.

The source who wished to remain anonymous because of restrictions on talking to the media, said that territorial changes were not discussed on Sunday but guarantees came top of the agenda.

Although the two leaders are said to have come close to agreeing the amount of territory that should be administrated by the Turkish Cypriot government, there are still disagreements over which towns and villages should be included.

Potentially thousands of residents may have to move from their homes depending on the agreement to redraw boundary lines.

If a deal is reached on territorial changes, negotiators are expected to announce a date for a final five-party summit between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders and the three other states involved in the process: Turkey, Greece, and the UK.

That meeting will focus on security, particularly the presence of 30,000 Turkish troops that remain based on the island after a 1974 military coup was followed by Turkey’s intervention as a guarantor power.

The two-day summit in the Swiss town of Mont Pèlerin is being overseen by the UN’s Special Advisor on Cyprus, Espen Barth Eide, in an effort to resolve one of the world’s longest-running political dilemmas.